Musical embodiment of the Gulf Coast Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, 81, cancer PC: 9, FC: 2, M: 7*. Total: 18
*Extra points for refusing treatment for his cancer in favor of continuing to smoke pot and retreating from Katrina not to Houston, where M.D. Anderson awaited, but to Orange, because that was where he was from and where he wanted to die

Alternative roots-rock singer-guitarist Chris Whitley, 45, lung cancer PC: 8, FC: 6, M: 5*. Total: 19
*Like Brown, Whitely tried to refuse to let a little thing like terminal lung cancer get in the way of his doing what he loved: playing music